EV Cost Per Mile Calculator

EV cost per mile vs. gas cost per mile

Both sides of this comparison are the same shape — energy per mile times price per unit of energy — which is why it can be settled with arithmetic rather than argument.

For the EV, take consumption in kWh per 100 miles, divide by 100, multiply by your electricity rate. A typical EV at 30 kWh/100 mi on the US average residential rate of $0.16/kWh: 0.30 × $0.16 = 4.8¢ a mile.

For the gas car, divide the price of a gallon by miles per gallon. A 30 mpg car at $3.30/gal: $3.30 ÷ 30 = 11.0¢ a mile. The EV is a bit under half the cost, and over 13,000 miles a year that gap is $806 — $624 of electricity against $1,430 of gasoline.

The more useful way to hold this is as a break-even. Gasoline would have to fall to about $1.44 a gallon for that 30 mpg car to match a typical EV charged at home. It has not been there since the early 2000s. Run it the other direction and your electricity rate would have to reach $0.37/kWh— roughly Hawaii's — for the EV to lose. Between those two poles, which is where nearly every American driver lives, home charging wins on fuel and it is not close.

Three things narrow the gap honestly, and they are worth stating because most comparisons skip them:

• DC fast charging. At a typical $0.45/kWh, that same 30 kWh/100 mi EV costs 13.5¢ a mile — more than the gas car. An apartment dweller with no home outlet is playing a different game than a homeowner with a garage.
• Hybrids, not average gas cars. A 50 mpg hybrid at $3.30/gal is 6.6¢a mile. Still more than home charging, but the EV's advantage shrinks from 2.3× to about 1.4×.
• Fuel is the smallest line in the budget. Depreciation, insurance, and tires all cost more per mile than electricity does. Winning the fuel argument does not win the ownership argument — that is what the EV vs gas TCO calculator is for.

The mistake that inflates every EV cost-per-mile estimate

A charging-loss factor gets applied twice more often than not. The reasoning sounds right: an onboard charger is 85–90% efficient, so surely you must divide by 0.88 somewhere. You must not — at least, not when you start from the EPA figure.

EPA measures an EV's consumption by draining the pack and then recharging it from a wall outlet, counting the energy the outlet delivered. The heat lost in the onboard charger is already inside the published kWh/100 mi number. Multiply it by your rate and you land on what the utility meter bills you. Divide by 0.88 on top and you have quietly overstated your cost per mile by 14%. This calculator does not apply a loss factor, and neither should you.

What the EPA number doesn't include is real-world driving: sustained highway speed, a loaded car, and above all cold weather. Those push actual consumption above the rating, typically by 5–15% averaged over a year, and by much more through a hard winter. If you want the rating adjusted rather than trusted, the EV range calculator does that adjustment.

Cost per mile by popular EV model

EPA combined consumption for each model, priced at the US average residential rate of $0.16/kWh over 13,000 miles a year. The spread from most to least efficient is close to three to one, which is a larger swing than most drivers get from switching utilities.

Two things stand out. The efficient sedans — Model 3, Ioniq 6, Air Pure — cluster near 4 cents a mile, and nothing about them is exotic; aerodynamics and weight explain almost the whole table. And the electric trucks do not beat gas by much: a Hummer EV SUV at 10.2¢ a mile is roughly a 32 mpg sedan. Buy an electric truck for the torque, the frunk, or the outlets in the bed. Do not buy one to save on fuel.

The Chevrolet Bolt is a common entry in tables like this one, but GM ended production in December 2023 and there is no current EPA figure to quote, so we have left it out rather than print a stale one. The Equinox EV — GM's own replacement for it — and the Nissan Leaf occupy the same 30 kWh/100 mi, 4.8¢-a-mile territory the Bolt did.

Getting your electricity rate right matters more than the car

Almost everyone who does this calculation uses the wrong rate, and always in the same direction. The number on the marketing page of your utility is the supply rate — what the electrons cost. Your bill also carries delivery charges, transmission, taxes, and a fixed monthly customer charge, and together those routinely add 30–50%. Take the total dollar amount on your last bill and divide it by the kWh you used. That quotient, not the supply rate, is what a marginal mile costs you.

Then find out whether your utility has a time-of-use or EV-specific rate. Many do, and overnight off-peak pricing is often half the flat rate — the single largest lever on this page. Charging between midnight and 6 a.m. on a plan like that can drop a 4.8-cent mile under 3 cents, which is a bigger improvement than trading a Model Y for the most efficient EV sold. If you are still deciding whether the Level 2 install pays for itself, the home charger ROI calculator prices the hardware against exactly these savings.

One caution about tiered rates: in states like California, adding an EV can push household consumption into a higher tier, so the marginal cost of charging exceeds your average rate. A typical EV driving 13,000 miles adds roughly 3,900kWh a year — about a third on top of an average home's usage. If you are on a tiered plan, use the top-tier rate here, not the average one.

Vehicle efficiency figures are EPA combined consumption from fueleconomy.gov and manufacturer specifications, 2025–2026 model years. Electricity rates are US Energy Information Administration Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A residential averages (2024 annual, the latest full year published). The $3.30/gal and 30 mpg gas defaults are illustrative starting points, not published averages — replace them with your own; check current gasoline prices at EIA's weekly retail survey. Rates and specs change annually — verify before relying on them.